Since Tokyo won’t acknowledge what is really going on in Fukushima, farmers Masami Yoshizawa “Kibo no Bokujo” (Farm of Hope) and Naoto Matsumura “ganbaru Fukushima” took upon themselves to bring a little bit of Fukushima to Tokyo.

They want to know why so many of their animals and those abandonned that they are caring for, have developed a weird skin condition; white dots on their hides … and that since March 2011. They are also seking for authorities to stop culling abandoned livestock and burning radiation-contaminated vegetation they need to feed the animals.

福島県庁前に到着した希望の牧場のトラック。荷台には、斑点症状の牛。 Arriving in Tokyo

Authorities remain uncooperative and unwilling to even acknowledge a potential correlation between radiation and these increasing symptoms. Consequently, Yoshizawa san and Matsumura san took matter in their own hands, drove down from Fukushima with one of these cows to the Ministry of agriculture in Tokyo, to get “answers”.

吉沢さんや松村さんに詰め寄る福島県庁の職員。吉沢さんは「今から経産省や環境省に牛を連れて行く。止めても行く」。県庁職員は「20キロ圏から出さない、福島県から出さないことになっている。あくまでもお願い。要請」。Naoto san and yoshizawa san negotiating to Fukushima Pref officers

The two men tried to unload the beast at the Ministry, but after a few scuffles with the police, they were unsuccessful in their attempt.

“Stop, stop, stop, stop,” shouted a police officer who climbed into the back of the truck and blocked the farmers from leading the bull onto the pavement in front of the ministry. “It’s dangerous. Absolutely not!”

“The ministry told us they don’t know what is causing the spots. Well, they need to do more research and figure it out. They can’t just run away, saying they don’t know,” Yoshizawa said.

white spots all over the body of the animal …

Fellow Fukushima farmer Naoto Matsumura said: “What if this started happening to people? We have to examine the cause of this and let people know what happened to these animals.”

Shouting through a megaphone, he urged the farm minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, to come and look for himself. Hayashi was not in the building, and no other officials responded to Yoshizawa’s appeal, though the two were allowed to present a written appeal at the ministry’s reception desk.

“Discarded towns, discarded evacuees. The cattle and people are still living. We cannot remain silent,” Yoshizawa said.